China has launched its first lunar rover, in an attempt to make the first soft landing on the moon since 1976. From the New York Times:
If successful, the Chang’e-3 mission will be China’s first “soft landing” on the moon — which allows a craft to operate after descending — and the first such landing by any country since 1976, when the Soviet Union sent a probe. The United States is the other country that has mastered soft lunar landings, and the last American expedition